How to: Playing DTS DD PCM audio Linux Station Home Theater

[smhealey]

I figured I would post a new topic sharing what allows me to use my QNAP TS-453a as the Home Theater PC I intended.

HD Station and its apps were unsatisfactory for my needs. Navigating the apps were clumsy and wouldn't provide the quality of output that I desired. Now Linux Station, turns my QNAP into a powerful and flexible Home Theater Computer. Yet, I struggled with Linux Station Pulseaudio settings tp pass DTS, DD or Multi-Channel PCM audio to my receiver. Fortunately there is ALSA audio (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture). With some research and discovering what other people have done to work around the problems of Pulseaudio I was able to put together these steps that quickly solve my issue and allow me to use my QNAP as the home theater computer Intended.

Qnap TS-453A/Linux Station 16.04

Problem: Pulseaudio only provides 2.0 or 2.1 PCM output to Audio Video Receiver and unable to enable passthrough audio in Kodi or VLC Media Player allowing DTS DD PCM

Fix: Prevent Pulseaudio from reloading after killing it and reload ALSA audio allowing to select proper HDMI device and enable passthrough audio in Kodi settings and VLC Media Player to send DTS 5.1, DD 5.1 or PCM 5.1 sound to Audio Video Receiver

Open terminal

## Change client.conf
sudo nano /etc/pulse/client.conf
## Change "; autospawn = yes" to "autospawn = no"

## Copy client.conf to ~/.config/pulse/
sudo cp /etc/pulse/client.conf ~/.config/pulse

## (optional) If Audio is a little bit crackling change default.pa
sudo /share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/ubuntu-hd/lxc/ubuntu_1604/pulse/pulse.common/default.pa
## Change "load-module module-udev-detect" to "load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0"

## Stop Pulseaudio
pulseaudio --kill

## reload ALSA
sudo alsa force-reload

[deshark]

I was using a very simmilar setup myself, however, after the latest Linux Station update it seems that both pulse cient.conf files get overwritten on Linux Station reboot. Can someone confirm such behaviour after the latest update?

[smhealey]

be sure to copy the /etc/pulse/client.conf to the location ~/.config/pulse this solves that problem for me.

[smhealey]

Instead of having to mess with this config every time restart. Now I just ended up uninstalling pulseaudio completely and everything defaults to ALSA.

sudo apt-get remove pulseaudio
sudo apt-get purge pulseaudio

[GadgetBazza]

I’m not having any luck with this solution.

I’ve removed the pulse audio which I’m confident has worked as I have no sound output device in the control panel anymore.

However, the force reload of also comes up with multiple errors mostly along the lines of Module snd-usb-caiaq not found in directory /lib/modules/4.2.8

This is on a TVS-882BR-T3 using Linux station 16.04

I’ve no expertise in Linux for sure so could do with some help!